Aviva Segall has always been passionate about music. Hearing the cello for the first time as a little girl, she remembered that “I got up and started screaming, ‘I want to play that one, mommy!’ It was love at first hear.”

One characteristic of a great idea is its persistence. “My wife and I had always wanted to do ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,’” reminisced Mark Lorentzen, co-founder and artistic director of Ghostlight Productions.